1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of surgery, and in particular to devices which are known in the art as retractors.
2. Prior Art
A surgeon, when performing an operation on a patient, is often obstructed in his efforts to excise diseased or damaged tissues or organs by surrounding tissues, fatty deposits, arteries, or other organs. It has generally been the case, when performing gastro intestinal surgery, i.e. surgery within the abdominal cavity, to make a large cut in the abdomen wall to produce a suitable opening to allow access to the interior organs. This cut was generally large enough to allow the use of human hands, either the surgeons or those of a member of the surgical team, as a retractor. Surgical personnel would thus insert their hands through the incision into the abdominal cavity to push and hold organs and other obstructing components away from the surgical objective.
Recently, as a result of the evolution in electronic video technology, a surgical procedure known as laparoscopic surgery has undergone a marked increase in popularity. The laparoscope consists of a long thin rigid tube. Residing at one end of the tube is a viewing lens; at the other is a camera hook up and an eye piece. A small incision in the area of the surgical objective is made and the laparoscope is partially inserted into this incision, viewing lens first. High definition video cameras and monitors are then attached to the camera hook up joint on the part of the laparoscope which remains on the exterior. In this manner, a surgical team can get a clear picture of the affected internal area without resorting to radical, disfiguring surgical incisions to physically open the patient. Numerous other small puncture wounds are then made through the surface of the skin also in the vicinity of the surgical objective. Through these incisions, miniaturized surgical instruments such as scissors, forceps, clamps and scalpels are insertable to perform the surgical procedure. The entire interior procedure is monitored from the exterior through the high definition television monitor. In this manner radical incisions and scarring are avoided while undertaking surgical repair or removal of damaged or diseased organs. Another benefit of laparoscopic surgery is the significantly reduced recovery time, when compared to standard surgical procedures, due to the minuscule size of the scalpel wounds and avoidance of the massive internal traumatization known in standard surgical procedures. Accompanying the reduced recovery time are, of course, greatly reduced costs.
Until recently, laparoscopic surgery was limited to gynecological and arthroscopic procedures. Recently, however, innovative surgeons have been using the procedure to perform cholecystectomy, commonly known as gallbladder removal. A problem encountered by surgeons when performing laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the intrudence of other internal abdominal organs into the surgical objective area i.e. gallbladder area. Abdominal organs such as the stomach, intestine and liver are known to be floppy and to overlap one another. Standard gallbladder surgery of the past, in which a huge incision was made in the patient's abdominal wall, allowed for the insertion of hands into the patient's abdominal cavity to push and hold these floppy organs away from the gallbladder while the surgeon effected the necessary removal. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy, with its minute surgical incisions, does not allow for the insertion of a human hand into the cavity to retract the floppy organs.
There is a need therefore to provide an instrument which can be inserted through a tiny surgical incision in the abdominal wall, to be used during laparoscopic surgery within the abdominal cavity, to push and hold neighboring internal organs away from that organ which is being excised or repaired. For example, during the known procedure of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, a retractor instrument is needed to push and hold neighboring organs away from the diseased gallbladder.